Golden marigolds and brilliant spices lined the streets as we wandered through cities and villages across five states of Northern India. Our Friend Tracy Davis was leading us on a tour of religious exploration. We were a group of seminary students from Earlham School of Religion, traveling in 2019 with our beloved professor Lonnie Valentine and his wife Genevieve.
From the Friends Meeting in New Delhi to the Root Institute in Bode Gaya to the Dalai Lama’s community in the foothills of the Himalaya, we explored various dimensions of prayer and meditation. We found many similarities, many differences, but in every one of the religious traditions we encountered, we found a deeply held commitment to meditation and prayer.
This journey deepened my prayer life as a Quaker. It opened me up to new groundings of faith for my daily practices. I was raised as a Friend of Jesus. I love Jesus. And the guidance I receive from my Friend assures me that Christ has come to teach me himself. It’s personal. And it’s universal. My inward guide directs me as I practice yoga throughout each week and as I pray throughout each day. The substance of my prayers varies widely – Hindu chants, songs by Friend Carrie Newcomer, Quaker Plainsong with Paulette Meyers. Throughout all of it, the faith that upholds me remains the same.
My seminary experience was terrifying at first. I was afraid that by learning an academic approach to religion, my thinking mind might grow to separate my faith from my intuition, which is my spiritual wellspring. But my teachers at Earlham guarded my spirit, cherished my intuition, and guided my walk. Now I serve as a minister myself, a spiritual nurturer to Friends and to people self-described as “spiritual but not religious.” From what I see through my ministry, I can assure you that a hunger for spirituality is growing in the general public.
I love prayer, and I love teaching others to pray. As I wander under nature’s blue dome, I speak continuously with the Mystery that surrounds me. Whether in stillness or in movement, my prayers tap into the eternal. This has supported my spirit in times of discernment, times of grief, times of celebration and tribulation. As I serve other people in my community, prayer is a channel that joins us; powered by our breath, our hearts, and minds; celebrating beauty; offering compassion to ones who suffer; pleading for health and strength and daily bread; and praising the Source that gives us health and strength and daily bread.
Prayer enables us to connect with the universe. As Pixie Lighthorse writes, “I see an overwhelming need to connect humanity to the disappearing natural world, and to appease the animate and spirit world with offerings and promises that people are willing to take notice and do their part to return harmony to a system which is out of balance.” (pixilighthorse.com/how-i-got-here)
This is quite the challenge that Lighthorse places before us. In the face of a world out of balance, I sometimes despair of being able to pray, especially during those times when the world seems entirely heartless. And yet, the more I pray and meditate, the clearer and calmer I feel amid the storms. One of my mentors from seminary days, Phil Gulley, used to say that we should pray, but then we should put some muscle into our prayers and go help others. In this formulation, prayer is faith in action, and it takes the form of vigils and protests, feeding the hungry, offering shelter, and speaking up against slander and abuse. Prayer is walking through the world in a way that makes it a better place for everyone.
Prayer is an expression of surrender to the powerful force of Love, which loves us all unstintingly. This force of Love asks us to surrender our limited egos and open our hearts to the Holy. I often find that I must check my thinking mind at the door before I can open myself to the spaciousness of love, the playfulness of love, the tenderness of love.
We are enabled to do great things through the Spirit, especially once we are strengthened, chastened, and humbled by prayer. We just might be able to stumble our way forward together toward unity with one another, through our strife and conflict with each other, by joining in truly open-hearted prayer together. Often, I find that the only way I can move through a conflict is with a soft and open heart, and the main way I open my heart is through prayer, which is frequently the embodied prayer of yoga.
It is through Friends’ characteristic stillness, our standing still in the Light, that we are enabled to let the truth set us free. This is a life-giving and illuminating freedom, sometimes even an illumination that sets us on fire – for Truth’s sake, for Love’s sake. In moments like these, I lift up songs of delight for all creation. I send beams of love and light to all who suffer. And I plead for guidance to find the most loving ways to afflict the comfortable, to wake them up from the torpor of self-serving greed.
For prayer is all about waking up and giving and creating. A life of prayer is a life of art. My Friend Dwight Wilson is writing Psalms, and here are a couple lines of his that I love: “We sing a song not of goals but of healing. May each arrival be at a higher ledge as our spirits climb the mountain of life.” Dwight prays through poetry. My spouse sometimes prays through photography. Our marriage prays through the shared rhythms of our daily lives. To pray without ceasing is the highest intention of any religious life. The world requires this highest intention from all of us – now more than ever.
Jaimie Mudd (also known as Jeanne-Marie, her given name, to some) is a member of Pima Friends Meeting, serves Intermountain Yearly Meeting in both Ministry & Council and Faith & Practice Committees. In her private practice she serves as a Qu/aker Spiritual Nurturer and Director. She and Daniel Mudd, her spouse, lead Dream retreats and coordinate the North America Experiment with Light Network. In the broader community she serves as a Senior Spiritual Wellness retreat leader for Canyon Ranch in Woodside California.